The present invention relates generally to member networks. More particularly, the invention describes methods and systems for generating confidence scores for members of the network so as to assist other members to make a decision of entering into a transaction therewith.
Various transactions such as business transactions typically involve interactions between two or more parties. For example, a party may provide a product or service to another party in return for payment. A party may share a product or service with other people that are not personally known to that party. For example, a person may rent out a room or a house to another person who is not previously known to that person. An investor may invest money in a venture of an entrepreneur. An early stage small business may raise funding from a large number of parties using equity crowd funding. An early stage investor may raise money from one or more angel investors. Shareholders of a private company may sell their shares to accredited investors in a secondary share-market.
Parties attempt to evaluate whether they can trust another party for purposes of such a transaction. A party may consider multiple parties as potential candidates to compete for purposes of entering into a transaction therewith. The party may prefer to enter into a transaction with someone that the party considers most trustworthy. If a party does not have a good mechanism to evaluate other unknown parties, the party may reject suitable candidates with whom the party could have entered into a successful transaction. For example, an angel investor may not invest in an entrepreneur that was worth investing. Alternatively, the party may start a business transaction with an unsuitable party and realize later that the party was unsuitable. Conventional techniques may not provide a suitable mechanism for a party to determine whether another party is suitable for purposes of entering into a transaction.
The need therefore exists for an independent way to assess the confidence one party places into another for a purpose of entering into a transaction therewith.
Electronic commerce is a common example of a network of users which permits buyers to purchase products, services, and other items from sellers via data networks such as the Internet. Conventionally, marketplace operators solicit feedback on sellers from buyers—typically as a quantitative rating and/or textual narrative—and publish this feedback to buyers in the marketplace.
This conventional approach has several significant disadvantages. First, the ratings can be unfairly manipulated by buyers, or even by sellers impersonating buyers. Second, the ratings omit potentially important information, such as information known only to the infrastructure provider such as a system administrator.
The need further exists for system-generated confidence score that accounts for such limitations of the present day member networks.